Spall Council Against Increasing Police Service

Spallumcheen council is putting up a roadblock to the province’s demand to increase their police staffing.

Mayor Janice Brown says they plan to discuss the issue with the Ministry of Justice which wants the township to basically add another officer to their current commitment of 3.5.

“So let’s sit down and negotiate and find out why the change, and you justify the change, and we’ll justify why we don’t think there should be a change, and then we’ll negotiate,” Brown tells Kiss FM.

Brown says they have very little crime in the community — other than some B and E’s.

“We have no downtown core, we’ve got no retail, we’ve got nothing. And we’re fortunate we don’t have a lot of crime other than some rural break-ins.”

Brown says it could be a safety issue with police needing two officers to respond to incidents, instead of one.

She says it may also be due to marijuana being legalized next year.

“We need them to tell us why we need another officer, slash half an officer.”